ROCKFORD — The city has gotten an early bump in revenue from meters installed in four downtown parking decks.

The hourly parking income is part of an effort to make the city’s parking system, which has lost money in each of the last 11 years, pay for itself.

The meters were first installed in May at the city’s busiest deck, the Concourse Deck next to the BMO Harris Bank Center. Since the automatic meters replaced live attendants, monthly revenue jumped 40 percent, according to sales data provided by ABM Parking, the city’s parking manger.

Over the past four months, meters were also added at the Wyman and State streets deck, the State and Main streets deck and at the Pioneer Deck next to the Coronado.

September marked the first month all four decks charged for hourly parking. The decks sold $12,038 in hourly parking passes in September, up from an average of $6,088 a month before the meters were installed.

Money gained will be used to help pay for needed repairs to the decks, said Tim Hanson, director of public works.

The city had to close two floors and cut off large portions of its parking spaces within the decks because of crumbling cement. Ultimately, city officials plan to build a new structure.

“We’re going to be about $300,000 in the red this year,” Hanson said. “Right now one of our busiest customers is Winnebago County. And we’re going to be losing them next year, because they’re building a new lot.”

Since June, the city has charged for parking in the decks on weekends, but early data shows that drivers aren’t buying it.

Of the $34,156 in hourly passes sold at the decks since June, just $208 has come on weekends.

On top of the new hourly parking revenue, aldermen will consider raising monthly parking permits from $43 to $50 a month. A final decision will be made early next year, when the City Council passes its annual budget.

The newly formed downtown parking committee, which consists of business owners, residents and city staff, is pushing the City Council to offer discounts for downtown employees.

Under the proposal, the employees would pay $20 a month to park in one of two downtown street lots.

Ald. Tom McNamara, D-3, who’s ward covers downtown, thinks the city is wasting an opportunity to lure businesses with cheap parking by trying to get the parking system to pay for itself.

“We don’t need it to pay for itself,” McNamara said. “Look at places like the airport where it’s an asset that people don’t have to pay for parking. We should be doing everything we can to help businesses start and expand.”